Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-03-26

The earth. as YOU know, is a great
globe, 900 miles through from side to
side. Geology would not De n possible
study if We were obliged to learn about
the earth, down to its center, 1905
miles below the surface. All this
mighty mass, except sort of skin
which incloses It, as the r,nd incloses
the orange, is made up of metals and
minerals, just as the fire has moldel
them. At first the "rind" was only the
outer part of the globe or melted rock
which had hardened as the earth cooled
down.
| hope you remember what it was
that changed the hardened surface OF
the globe into the wonderful layered
crust that now covers it; how the all
and w~ter and fire went to work. the
air and water powdering the rock and
letting it settle into the waters depths
and then when this had again become
solid, how the fire burst through, turn
ing and tearing and wrin!iling the lay
ers. The crust of the earth. so far as
We know, is not more than ten miles
deep anywhere, and in many places is
not more than three. This seems a
wonderful depth when we think how
long it would take to walk SO far, but
it is very little when compared with
the size of the earth. OF course we
could never have reached the bottom
layers if they had all settled quietly
down, one on top of the other, and
staid just where they first settled, for
the deepest mines cut down through
L., a. L
to our help, and broken and tilted
them up so that the edges of the lay
ers are expo ed, and can be studied
better than if men had dug down to
them.
The crust of the earth is like a won
derful book, with its leaf upon leaf,
close shut, yet each bearing upon it the
record of n life long passed away. For
hundreds, even thousands, of years tho
pages of this book lay unread. Men
had seen them; they had perhaps
guessed and wondered at the curious
forms impressed upon them; but no
one had looked upon them with q see
ing eye, no one had worked out the
problem, no one had guessed the rid
die of the rocks. Underneath these
written pages, where the history OF tho
past may be read, lies the fre-made
rock, like SO many blank pages. Nc
life had ever existed there, and so the
pages are empty.
The first man who learned the Ian
guage o: the rocks was the great artist,
Leonardo ia Ninci. His eyes had been
taught to see in another schOol--the
school o. art. BERNARD Palissv. also a
great artist in another line, found out
some of the secrets written upon the
tables OF stone. He tells us, more than
500 years ago, that the Figured stones"
as the plants and animals in the rocks
were then called, were the remains of
creatures that had once been alive, and
that they had been covered over and
preserved at the bottom of the sea.
The crust of the earth is very ir-
regular; great mountains and plains
use above the level of the oceans, and
mighty valleys sink beneath their
depths. The highest mountains stand
only about five miles above the sea-
,eyel, aud the deepest ocean valley
links only about the same distance be-
aeath its waters. Great as this I'M
.venncss of the surface seems, it is less
than the roughness OF the rind of an
orange, in proportion to the size of the
globe. When you look on the map of
the world the continents appear to be
very irregular in shape. There seems
10 be no sort of rule in their formation;
but Il ere is; some things are alike in
them all. Each continent-Europe
=